Conventionally, light sources such as LEDs have been equipped inside accessories so as to emit light from a part of or a whole of the accessory such as badge by radiating light from the light sources. Light emission from the accessories has been performed for various purposes including a purpose of providing an illumination function to the accessories, or a purpose of lighting or flashing the accessories attached to clothes or backs for preventing traffic accident and/or crimes in the night time, in addition to purposes of highlighting surface or interior designs or shapes of the accessories, or decorating the accessories.
JP Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2009-183327 discloses an accessory product having: a colored semi-transparent case body that has three-dimensional outer shapes of e.g., pentagram with a partitioned interior structure constituting a void space; a plurality of LED substrates provided in the void space; a power source; and a switch for ON/OFF operation of the power source, such that the accessory product is visible with the mixed color of the light caused by transmission of light with various light-emitting colors of LEDs through the colored case.
For example, as an effect achieved by the accessory product of the above-described constitution, it is possible to provide functions of warning lamps to the accessories, and to prevent a traffic accident by having the accessory emit a light in the night time.
Japanese Utility Model Registration No. 3161581 discloses a light emitting accessory having a light transmission body and a light emitter, wherein the light emitter including an LED is housed behind the light permeable body such that the light emitted from the light emitter transmits through the light permeable body having a concrete shape and exit from surfaces of the light permeable body while refracting at portions of the surface. This document further discloses the accessory wherein a recess portion is formed on a backside of the light permeable body such that the light emitted from the single LED provided at a center portion is scattered to the recess portion and thereby emitting the various refracted lights from the portions of the light permeable body.
According to the above-described constitution of the accessory, as a result of light emission of LED behind the light permeable body and light transmission through the light permeable body, characteristic refraction lights are visible on the respective surface portions of the light permeable body, thereby improving the appearance of the light emitting accessory. In addition, it is possible to reduce the size of the accessory by housing the light emitter including an LED inside the recess portion formed on the back side of the light permeable body.
According to the accessory product disclosed in JP Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2009-183327, since a plurality of LEDs are provided to illuminate entire portion of the accessory, there are some problems such as increased production cost, increased manufacturing process for assembling the LEDs, and increased size of the product for ensuring the space for installing the LEDs. In addition, since the luminance of the accessory is extremely high at a LED-installed portion relative to the other portions, it is impossible to achieve homogeneous or uniform light emission from the entirety of the accessory product of JP Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2009-183327, regardless of the arrangement of the plurality of LEDs.
According to the light emitting accessory disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Registration No. 3161581, since the accessory has only one light source and the luminance of the light emitted from the portions of the accessory decreases with increasing distance from the light source. Therefore, it is impossible to achieve a homogeneous or uniform light emission from the entirety of the accessory.